Trivia / The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

• California Doubling: Like its preceding movies, it is set in dystopian North America but it was filmed in Germany and Poland.
• Creator Backlash: Ashley Liao expressed mild disappointment about Clemensia's role being cut down, specifically with the aftermath of the snake bite and how she thought it would've been fun to play out the scenes where she returned and was semi-morphed from the effects of the venom—and how cool she thought being made up that way would've looked.
• Dawson Casting: To varying degrees.
  • On the younger end, we had some college-aged actors playing characters from the ages of 17 to 18. Rachel Zegler was 21 when playing the 17-year-old Lucy Gray. Ashley Liao (Clemensia) was 20 to 21 during filming.
  • Tom Blyth (Snow) and Josh Andrés Rivera (Sejanus) were both 27 during filming. Their characters are 18 in the film.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Bobbin's actor, Knox Gibson, is also an amputee in real life.
• Fake American: British actor Tom Blyth puts on an American accent while playing Coriolanus Snow.
• Real-Life Relative: Rachel Zegler's sister appears as an extra during Lucy Gray's reaping.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Jason Schwartzman plays Lucky Flickerman, an ancestor of Caesar Flickerman who was played by Stanley Tucci; the physical likeness is uncanny.
• Those Two Actors: This is the second film Rachel Zegler and Josh Andrés Rivera have starred in together, following West Side Story (2021).
• Throw It In!:
  • Francis Lawrence and Rachel Zegler adlibbed Lucy Gray Baird's mocking curtsey when she's reaped for the Hunger Games on the very day that the scene was filmed, aiming to echo/inspire Katniss mocking the game planners in the first film (and decades later in the in-universe timeline).
  • Wovey grabbing and holding Lucy Gray's hand before the Games was not scripted. Sofia Sanchez improvised this, as she and Rachel Zegler had grown close on set.
• Underage Casting: Hunter Schafer plays Tigris, who is older than Coriolanus by 3 years. In real life, however, Schafer is 3 years younger than Coriolanus' actor, Tom Blyth.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Francis Lawrence entertained the idea of splitting the book into multiple films. However, recalling the backlash to splitting Mockingjay into two films, he decided to keep the film as one.
  • Rachel Zegler initially turned down the offer to star in the film, as she was scared of having to commit filming overseas (it was her first time ever). She immediately regretted the decision, especially since she learned her boyfriend Josh Andrés Rivera had signed on as Sejanus, and successfully lobbied to get back in.
  • Laurel Marsden was supposed to play Mayfair Lipp, but dropped out to star in The Pope's Exorcist. As a result, Mayfair's role went to Isobel Jesper Jones instead.